We first reported on the wines of Ladera about a year and a half ago, and we were quite impressed with what we tasted. It’s been that long since we last tried the ’01 Lone Canyon Cab, so we thought it would be fun to see how it’s coming along; to make things more interesting, we gave it a side-by-side comparison with the ’02 model.

2001 Ladera Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Lone Canyon, 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, $62.99, 14.5% alc.: Dark garnet in color, and offering pure, lovely Cabernet character, with rich, ripe (but not at all over-ripe) somewhat earthy black currant and cassis on the nose and palate, with subtle overtones of blackberry, perfectly integrated oak and a slight note of dusty cocoa as it opens. With good extraction and excellent structure, this will age for at least another 3-5 years, but it’s so good already, it’s hard to keep the hands off of it now. Definitely the better of these two vintages at this time.

2002 Ladera Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Lone Canyon, 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, $63.99, 14.9% alc.: Without looking at the labels of these two wines, Kim remarked that this one shows more heat than the ’01, and she has a point; it’s a deep, dark garnet in color, with richer, riper black currant, blackberry and blueberry fruit than the previous model. It doesn’t seem quite as substantial in the middle, nor as well structured, but as it opens, it smoothes out nicely, and loses some of the heat. While not quite up to the ’01 at this time, it does show promise for development over the next few years. We'll check in somewhere down the road with a followup report.